Up Close, But Not Too Personal

The next 2 mini drawings in the Burano series are of individual houses that I photographed last year – the colours, the flowers, the laundry lines, and the striped curtains fluttering in the doorways. When I draw or photograph, I always get this romantic notion of trying to imagine who lives in these houses – what are their lives like?

On the hot day I visited, all the doors were closed behind those wafting curtains, all the blinds pulled way down over the windows. No TVs or music coming from the homes, no smells of cooking, even though it was lunchtime. It was like it was a Hollywood set. I wasn’t getting much sensory information to help flesh out my daydream of “who lives here”. And I get it – locals who own these homes must want their privacy, and not hordes of tourists sticking their cameras or heads behind these curtains or staring into windows. I guess this is what happens when a little gem or “best kept secret” becomes a big deal. Whoa… this post got a little dark for such a colourful subject!

Anyway, back to the drawings. The process of drawing and painting did allow me some time and space to indulge my curiosity – is there another clothesline out back because the laundry out front contains no intimate garments? Who owns the bike and where do they bike on this small island? If we have pictures of Burano hanging in our houses, what pictures do they have hanging in their houses? Hmmm….